Better Than a Picture(pt 3 of the REAL McRoll Thanksgiving Marathon)
by sammy1026
Summary: Steve and Catherine have a question for DJ.


_Part 3 of the 6th Annual REAL McRoll Thanksgiving Marathon._

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**Forever (1/1)**

"DJ come?" Angie asked as she, Mary and Joan prepared to leave for a pre-arranged pre-zoo breakfast.

"Not this time," Catherine said as she kissed her daughter. "This is a special girl's day breakfast with Aunt Deb, Mary and Joan."

"Yay!" Joan raised her arms over her head in celebration and beamed when Angie cheered along.

"Then after breakfast we're all going to the zoo," Steve reminded her.

"Zoo!" the girls cheered in unison.

Deb was thrilled with the chance to treat 'her favorite girls' as she called them to a special breakfast and it dovetailed nicely with Steve and Catherine's desire to talk to DJ alone.

"See you 'a-ter, DJ," Angie said as she grabbed his hand. "Go zoo! Ahh be dah ami-nals."

DJ smiled. "Have fun at breakfast."

After a round of goodbyes they turned to the young boy who had retrieved the picture book Aaron gave him from the coffee table and was clutching it to his chest. The much-loved gift hadn't been more than a few feet from him since he received it.

"Hey, buddy." Steve smiled. "Catherine and I would like to talk to you for a minute if that's ok."

DJ nodded and took a seat between them on the couch while maintaining a tight grip on his book.

"You really like that book Aaron made for you, don't you?" Steve asked.

The young boy nodded. "He said I can keep it."

Catherine squeezed his knee supportively. "Of course you can."

"Can I keep it even if …" He looked down nervously, his demeanor instantly timid.

Cammie, sensing a change, moved immediately towards the newest member of her pack. She wanted to be close by if needed.

"If what?" Catherine asked softly.

DJ's eyes welled up and his bottom lip began to tremble. "Even if I have to go back to live with Aunt Julia and Uncle Carl."

"Oh sweetheart." Catherine lifted the now sniffling boy into her lap and wrapped him in a hug. "You are never going back to live with them."

"Really?" DJ turned his hopeful eyes on first Catherine, then Steve. He hadn't wanted to go live with his grandmother after his parents died. She yelled a lot and sometimes called him mean names. She said that if she hadn't been willing to take him in he'd have to live in a place like a jail where they sent bad children that nobody loved. So he should be grateful. The lady who took him to his old house to get his clothes and his teddy bear then dropped him off at his grandma's told him everything would be fine.

After his grandma died that same woman came and took him to Aunt Julia and Uncle Carl's house. It didn't take long living with them to think the children's jail might not be so bad. There were a lot of scary people in and out of the house all the time and he wasn't allowed in the kitchen to get food. In fact, some days they told him there was no food left for him that day.

After they left him at home alone and didn't come back he still didn't go into the kitchen. He knew he'd be in big trouble if he did. So he managed to get by on some crackers and granola bars he had saved and hidden in his room. This time when the woman came to see him and told him it was her job to find him a place to live it was a different woman. She was nice. Still, he hadn't dared hope it was going to be different this time.

He loved staying with Steve, Catherine, and Angie. It was the first time in his young life he could ever remember feeling happy. He wasn't worried about bad people coming into his room anymore. There wasn't anywhere in the house he wasn't allowed to go. There was always food at mealtime and even snacks. There were plenty of hugs and lots of family and friends who were all nice. Everyone laughed a lot. That something he wasn't used to. There hadn't been much laughter in his first six years. If he needed something or was feeling anxious or unsure Steve and Catherine were always there. Always willing to talk. They always made him feel better.

He loved Angie and was both amazed and thrilled by the fact that she seemed to love him back. He'd had friends when he went to school but he'd always felt like he had to hide the truth about his family and had thus unintentionally created a wall around himself that kept the other children at a distance. Angie had crashed right through that wall from day one. She reveled in being around him and he in turn took joy in making her smile.

"I promise," Steve said and even though he'd never had a man in his life he could count on before DJ knew for certain it was the truth. "In fact, that's kind of what we wanted to talk to you about. We wanted to ask your opinion on something."

DJ wasn't sure what to say. No one ever asked his opinion on anything. They just told him what to do and he did it.

"We were wondering," Catherine said in a soft tone that DJ had loved from the first time he heard it, "If you might want to come and live here with us."

DJ's breath caught in his throat. He looked at Catherine and then Steve. He didn't dare get his hopes up that she meant what he hoped she meant. He was almost afraid to ask but something inside him needed to know. Desperately.

"Forever?" he asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Catherine and Steve smiled then said in unison, "Forever."

It only took a split second for DJ to fling himself at Steve and wrap him in a tight hug.

"Is that a yes?" Steve asked as he returned the hug.

DJ nodded without raising his head from where it was buried against Steve's neck. After a moment of celebration DJ's body began to tremble, then shake. Steve felt tears on his neck. Within seconds the young boy was sobbing uncontrollably. "Hey, hey, hey, are you okay?"

DJ pulled back slightly but was crying too hard to form words. So he just nodded.

"Are you happy?" Catherine asked, around tears of her own.

DJ nodded again and reached for her. She wrapped him in a hug and he settled against her chest. She murmured soft words in his ear and he began to calm down.

Catherine's eyes met Steve's and they smiled. There was no question this was the right decision.

* * *

"Thanks for coming over on a Sunday," Steve said as he and Catherine ushered Estella Longo into the living room where a red-eyed but beaming DJ was sitting on the floor playing with Cammie. "We're anxious to make this official."

Estella smiled. "I understand. Hi, DJ." She waved at the youngster who lit up immediately.

"Steve and Catherine asked me if I wanted to live here with them forever!"

Estella knelt in front of him and patted Cammie on the head. "And what did you say?"

"I said I do!" He bit his lip nervously. "If you say I can."

"I definitely say you can."

DJ jumped up and hugged her excitedly. "Thank you. Thank you. I'll be good. I promise."

"I'm sure you will." Estella smiled. "Now can you play with Cammie for a few minutes while I talk to Steve and Catherine?"

DJ nodded happily.

"Are you having your usual big crowd for the holiday?" Estella asked.

"Yes." Catherine smiled. "In addition to everyone who lives here on the island, Mary, Aaron, Joan, and Aunt Deb are in from Los Angeles for the week. They're staying with my parents though. We didn't want to overwhelm DJ with too many new people so soon after he came to stay with us."

Estella nodded. "Good idea. He's never had much family to speak of so letting him adjust slowly is the right call. Enough small talk though," she grinned, "let's get down to what you called me here for. Since DJ has a long history with CWS we can cut through a lot of the usual red tape," she explained as she took a seat in the chair facing Steve and Catherine on the couch. "There was an exhaustive investigation done back when DJ's parents died. Aside from the Lennoxes, he has no other living relatives that would be a suitable placement." She lowered his voice even though DJ was playing with Cammie and didn't appear to be listening. "He probably should have been removed from his family altogether after his parents were killed but we can't go back and change history."

Catherine grabbed Steve's hand and squeezed. "So we can start official adoption proceedings?"

"We need to legally end the Lennox's guardianship but that's just a formality. Since they haven't been convicted of any crime yet, however, there is a process we need to follow."

"How long will that take?" Steve asked. The sooner he heard the last of Julia and Carl Lennox the better.

"Normally three or four weeks but it may take a little longer because there are always delays around the holiday season," Estella replied. "I'm going to push to get it done as soon as I can. Once I do, we can start your formal adoption procedures. I have already talked to my boss and we both agree that the two of you are a great placement for DJ. Once the process starts, we'll do the usual home visits to check that everyone is still on board with the plan, which clearly isn't going to be a problem in this case." She beamed. "So we'll be looking at making things officially official with a hearing before a judge sometime next spring."

Catherine couldn't hold back a tiny squeal of happiness that escaped her lips.

"Oh and before I forget …" Estella reached into her bag and pulled out an unsealed envelope. "My boss signed off on your holiday trip. Apparently Governor Kekoa called and mentioned she was willing to vouch for both of you. You're free to travel to the mainland with DJ."

DJ, whose attention had been drawn back to the conversation by Catherine's squeal, jumped up. "We're going to the mainland?"

"You bet we are," Steve said. "We're going to visit Nonna."

There was a look of pure joy on the young boy's face as he ran across the room and jumped into Steve's lap. "We're gonna have so much fun," Catherine said. "And oh how Nonna is gonna love you. Almost as much as we already do."

**TBC tomorrow with the zoo visit.**

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